Aechmea tessmannii Harms

Literature references:

Baensch & Baensch 1994: 40 Bromtravels (Web) Die Bromelie: 1997:25 : 1980:33 Die Bromelie 1/89: 1989:1 FCBS (Web) Golinski 1997 J. Bromeliad Soc.: 26:66 27:1 43:240 Manzanares 2002a: 215 Oliva-Esteve 2000a: 77 Padilla 1981: 69 Palmengarten: 52(s):93 Smith & Downs 1979: 1904,1906 Tropiflora Cargo Rep: 15(1) Zaghini 2000: 46

Comments:

• Aechmea tessmannii Harms occurs in the Amazonian drainage of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru from 100 to 1350 meters elevation. On a recent trip to the Loreto area of Napo Province in Ecuador with Peter Bak of Holland and Luis Sota of Costa Rica, I found an exceptional form of A. tessmannii or a related species (1993jbs193). The plant was growing in a tropical rain forest near Ishpano at 1000 meters elevation.
  
  According to H.E. Luther, specialist for Ecuadorian Bromeliaceae, the plant differs from A. tessmannii by having the inflorescence more densely branched with the branches shorter and more numerous and the sepals conspicuously exserted beyond the floral bracts. Compare this plant with a typical A. tessmannii (1993jbs240), collected and photographed by Jose Manzanares of Quito, Ecuador. Whatever this attractive aechmea is, it is worthy of cultivation in any collection. —See Skotak 1993 p. 43(5): 218